Profile: Joseph Marek: 2016-17 ASCP President

It was four months in Alaska, in the middle of winter, that changed Joseph Marek's view of what it means to be a pharmacist. Marek was on his last rotation in pharmacy school when he experienced the kind of practice that he wanted for himself. He found that kind of practice as a consultant pharmacist, and next month, Marek, 49, will become the 2016-2017 president of the American Society of Consulting Pharmacists. Working at the Public Health Service (PHS) in the Arctic Circle in 1990, he dispensed and carried out clinical duties with the chief pharmacist and provided care to the native Inuit population through the Indian Health Service. "PHS had a walk-in clinic where the physicians worked closely with the pharmacist to do medication management for the patients," he said. The pharmacists also provided medications to the surrounding villages (50,000 square miles) and had to coordinate the dispensing/delivery of these medications when the physicians visited them. "The doctors highly valued the pharmacists' clinical knowledge, and it was a great environment to learn how to collaborate with the medical/health care team to benefit the Inuits," he said. "Everyone worked together and you could see the outcomes quickly."